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26/11/2009

Dundee Misses Out on Scottish Government Cash for New Primary Schools

This morning the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning announced a list of Primary Schools to be built or refurbished with part funding from the Scottish Government through their Scottish Futures Trust. No Dundee Primary Schools were selected for this latest tranche of funding. Labour spokesperson for Education in the City, Laurie Bidwell said:

"I am disappointed that no Dundee primary schools have benefited from the SNP Government announcement on Primary Schools this morning. Unfortunately, this confirms my view that their three phase programme of school building will only part fund one school project in Dundee and that is the refurbishment of Harris Academy. Welcome as that decision was in September, it falls far short of the SNP manifesto commitment of May 2007 to match Labour's school building programme brick for brick. One Secondary school refurbishment falls far short of the Labour led administration's PPP programme which has delivered two new secondary Schools (St Paul's and Grove) and six new Primary Schools (Claypotts Castle, St Andrew's, Craigowl, Downfield, Rowantree and Fintry). Not only does this SNP school building programme fall far short in the number of new schools to be built in Dundee, but also its speed of working will not set the heather alight. Two months on from the fanfare of publicity on 28 September, when the refurbishment of Harris Academy was announced, the Director of Education, is still unable to confirm the amount of government cash to be committed to this project. The longer this takes to be confirmed the less likely it is that any work can begin on Harris Academy before 2012/13."

Welcome

Welcome to my Blog. I hope this provides a helpful record of my work on behalf of constituents in Broughty Ferry and my role as Labour Spokesperson on Education throughout the city during my two terms on the Council: 5 May 2007 - 4 May 2017.